Exclusive: 'Married at First Sight' expert says 'Houston brought it' on wild season filmed in Bayou City

Filmed in Houston, Season 13 of Lifetime's hit reality show "Married at First Sight" was one for the books, show experts say. The show travels to a different city each season, giving singles a blind date at the altar with their potential soulmate. We spoke exclusively with one of the show's experts and local relationship and marriage therapist, Dr. Viviana Coles, who said that "Houston brought it," recording one of the most diverse seasons and largest pool of applicants yet with nearly 10,000. "We have a lot of people in Houston who are willing to do radical things for love," she said. But that didn't come as a surprise to Coles, who is native to the Bayou City and grew up in the Memorial and Spring Branch area, and still resides in Spring Branch with her husband of nearly 15 years and two kids. "I have no say in where we go every location, but I was begging please do Houston," she said. "We're amazing. We're so diverse. We've got a little bit of everything in everyone. There's a lot of great food, a lot of great arts and culture, which is something that they look for in a city, they do want to showcase the city that they're in." The popular docuseries puts an extreme modern twist on an arranged marriage where experts in relationships, psychology and sociology match participants to get legally married to a stranger, and five unfamiliar newlywed couples embark on an eight-week experiment documenting their experience and intimacy, from the wedding to an expense-paid honeymoon and their everyday life moving into a joint apartment together and getting to know their spouse's family and friends. The trio panel of experts meet with the couples regularly five out of the eight weeks to see how they're progressing and help them overcome issues that arise before they have to verbally choose whether they wish to stay married or get a divorce. On the dreaded "Decision Day," if both individuals say yes, then the couples toast with experts to a happy life together. If just one person says no, then that signals the start of their divorce process. Coles offered a behind-the-scenes look at how the couples are selected and how the show works. Selecting couples First production sorts through the thousands of applications eliminating the unqualified or ineligible based on whether they have kids, age range and commute. "We don't want to set them up for the obstacle of having to drive 250 miles just to live together," Coles said. "Commutes are long enough. And then there's age ranges, we want to make sure that there are people who aren't too young, older, we're getting older and older applicants, which is always exciting to see." Once the applicants get down to the hundreds, Coles said experts begin to examine closer to see who is "really ready for marriage." "The men and women that we see they are under the microscope," she said. "I mean, there's no there's no ifs, ands or buts about it. We are really trying to see into their souls because we're not mind readers but we really try to be because we want to set them up for success. We know that getting married is already difficult. All three of us have spouses, so we know it's difficult, but doing it in such a radical way and in such a public way, we know that they're already going to have that challenge. So we really try to set them up to not have to overcome really insurmountable odds." From there they weed out the "off putting" ones who aren't ready Coles said, and narrow the pool further to dozens and begin to do more research including talking to their friends and family, reading every single answer to the 600-plus item questionnaire, examine their applications, put them through two rounds of psych evaluations from an outside party, check employment verification, and background check. Coles acknowledged that experts changed the timeframe of the background checks in the process after a controversial incident on season seven in Dallas where a bride was arrested on the show at the airport while departing for the honeymoon. The bride, Mia Bally, was accused of three counts of stalking and one count of unauthorized use of access card, according to Newsweek, but later claimed that her ex-boyfriend had been abusive before her appearance on MAFS and attempted to sully her name with false allegations that led to her arrest on the reality series. Coles who wasn't on the show when it occurred but joined on season nine in Charlotte, said that situation happened after the background check and although it was unfortunate they learned from it. "That situation in particular we learned a lot from and what ends up happening is now we start to try to make sure that we're doing the background checks right before instead of doing them a little bit earlier on in the interest of making sure that we don't miss anything." Then, the match-making begins. The formula behind matching couples Selecting the participants may be the same from season to season, but pairing the right match isn't as simple. Is it based on similar interests or do opposites attract? It's a question on the minds of viewers every season, but Dr. Viviana said it varies for each match experts consider, but it typically comes down to similar values. "The core things that really make up how we see the world, those are things that we really try to be very, not necessarily similar but compatible," she said. "Anybody who's been with someone can know that interest change, hobbies change, but the values are there." But there are certain deal breakers that Coles said they just won't put someone through. "Despite what people might think we don't do opposites attract when it comes to whether or not you want kids," she said. "If somebody has been matched and one of them wants kids, we are assured that the other person does as well. They might share it differently with their new spouse, they might say 'well I'm not sure,' but that's certainly not something that they shared with us in that way." Other things like spirituality are important but "just icing" Coles said.They tend to be more open unless a participant specifies their spouse must belong to a specific belief system. To what extent do physical preferences factor in matching couples? In this season, one couple who called it quits on decisions day, Brett and Ryan, struggled to connect after Ryan expressed that Brett, his red-haired wife, was not his type. Myrla, who dumped her husband shortly after decision day, originally told experts in the opening matchmaking special that she didn't want a man who was bald, but when she walked down the aisle to meet Gil, he was bald. So how important are looks to the experts? It's becoming more of a priority, Coles said. "So unfortunately, as this show becomes more popular, we are having to make sure that we consider the physical attraction more because I think people are expecting there to be kind of this initial attraction and I say that because it's not what I would necessarily do if I'm matchmaking on the side, especially if it's a blind date, but if being a blind marriage, I think you truly need to be open to whomever ends up being at the end of the aisle," she said. Some strongly emphasized physical deal breakers are approved on the side Coles said, off cameras and aren't always revealed. "We don't ever give anything away," Coles said. "So if and when I asked her about the baldness thing, you can bet that I was like, 'Well, what if he's like such a great guy, but he happens to be bald. Is that really that big of a deal? Well, guess what she says? It'll be fine. You don't necessarily see it, but it's fun and it's exciting and it makes everybody talk 'well, like what if? But he's a such great guy, is she gonna overlook it?' You know, we want people to have these conversations either by themselves or their families on the couch." So does it work? To date, there hasn't been a perfect success rate. Three Houstonian couples called it quits this season, but one couple who initially agreed to stay married, revealed on part one of the reunion special that aired on Nov. 17, that they had split just 14 days later after the wife, Myrla Feria, left her husband, Gil Cuero heartbroken citing financial concerns, personality differences, and her lack of attraction to him. The news stunned fans who grew fond of the couple's gradual love story, and disappointed experts who had hoped the couple could move past their differences. The special also attempted to address rumors of castmates who weren't matched dating each other after deciding to get a divorce from their matched spouse. "I think this season was unexpected," Coles said. "It was kind of a wet splash of water to the face because it really did show us that this is not a perfect science. And that as strongly as we feel about a couple's potential, it's really going to be up to them to make it work or not." She elaborated that this season didn't shock her compared to the previous filmed in Atlanta where after an emotional, tumultuous six hours, one couple attempted to leave Decision Day "undecided" until Coles put her foot down and demanded they make a decision. "People having ups and downs in their marriage is one thing and that's expected," she said. "The unexpectedness comes from how they work through those things or how they treat each other when they're going through that. That's unexpected. The shocking part is when you bring in stuff that is like what? No, this is not that show."

Exclusive: 'Married at First Sight' expert says 'Houston brought it' on wild season filmed in Bayou City

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